"Did I come at a bad time?"
Instinct told him that it was very dangerous here; not only Shaina, but even those underlings around were watching him.
"Brother Queen, please help us!"
The members of the Hundred Beast Corps suddenly lined up, bowed to Queen, and then quickly hid to the side.
The relationship between the cadres of the Hundred Beasts Pirate Crew is quite strange, and it's no secret to ordinary people. Although they cooperate seamlessly in battle, outside of battle, they are quite an odd bunch.
For example, King and Queen start bickering the moment they see each other. Despite their fierce arguments, they rarely come to blows.
Shaina, on the other hand, doesn't usually argue with Queen, and they can communicate smoothly under normal circumstances—unless Shaina enters a rage mode. If she's in a bad mood, any meeting with Queen erupts into a fight.
Usually, Queen ends up being beaten unilaterally, so he has to pick his days carefully. If he happens to come across Shaina during her bad mood days due to physical discomfort, anywhere within a few kilometers of Shaina would be devoid of Queen.
Before Queen's arrival, the members of the Hundred Beasts were worried they would be dragged in as sparring partners. But with Queen here, they felt safe. After all, when Shaina is angry, Queen naturally becomes the magnet for her ire.
Watching the underlings quickly flee into the distance, an ominous feeling surged in his heart.
"I just remembered that there are things in my lab I haven't finished. I'm leaving now; feel free to burn these houses if you want."
This was the most important cargo island within the territory of the Hundred Beasts Pirate Crew, where nearly all transactions of the territory's materials took place. He came here because the equipment he ordered had arrived.
Now the Hundred Beast's domain includes five major islands: the Winter Island, where the weapons manufacturing and research laboratory are located; this trade island where Shaina resides, which has the climate of Spring Island; along with two islands primarily for mining, and one for farming, the Summer Island.
In addition to these islands, there were scattered, nameless, numbered small islands around them, making it quite an achievement.
Queen originally intended to "pick up a package" and watch the fun, but he didn't expect to get caught in the fire.
"Hey Queen, we haven't sparred for a while, have we? Care to have a practice session?"
"Ah, the wind is too strong. What did you say? I didn't quite catch that. If you have any business, go find King, that interrogation freak." As he said this, two pairs of leaf-like wings sprouted from his back, and he was about to leave. But as soon as he turned around, Shaina appeared in front of him.
"Since you're already here, don't leave, or else I would be losing face."
"Wait! I can fight, but give me a reason!" In terms of speed, he couldn't possibly outmatch Shaina. Since it was unavoidable, he at least wanted to know why he was about to die.
"I just want to battle you to check the results of recent training."
The reason was so simplistic that Queen found himself speechless.
"I do know how to fight back!"
"Of course, it's a sparring match, otherwise I would just go hit a sandbag."
Despite his resistance, Queen was forcibly dragged to the island's training ground by Shaina, where he was beaten one-sidedly. Queen didn't hold back; he truly couldn't win.
After some time, Shaina's anger finally subsided, and Queen felt like he had undergone training again. He thought if this continued, his Haki level might even break through.
Then he noticed the underlings outside serving tea and tending to water.
"Brother Queen, thanks for your hard work!"
They genuinely appreciated him. If Queen hadn't happened to appear here, they would have been the ones dragged into the training ground.
Even though they gained a lot every time they came out of the training ground, the pain was very real.
Queen allowed them to avoid this crisis, and they, of course, had to thank him.
"Why exactly is she so angry? Which one of you offended her?" Queen thought he had already understood Shaina's habits. As long as he avoided that one week and paid a bit more respect to Arceus, there wouldn't be any issues.
Since the last time he sold Judge and his team's information to Shaina, he hadn't been beaten up for a while.
"Brother Queen, it's because of this issue's wanted poster."
Seeing Arceus's wanted poster, Queen couldn't help but twitch his face a bit.
"The boss has already announced a bounty to find the person who made the wanted poster and took the photo..."
"Double the price."
"Huh?"
"I said double the price. If it weren't for that jerk, would I be this unlucky?"
That person must be blind. How could anyone utter...that word? He thought about it and decided not to say the word 'pet.'
If Shaina were still around, it wouldn't be a fun matter at all.
Shaina wasn't the only one who saw the wanted poster of Arceus, but everyone among the Hundred Beasts deliberately pretended they hadn't seen it, and no one brought up the issue in front of Arceus.
People could not take things seriously on their own accord and could make jokes about themselves, but some words, when spoken by others, take on a different connotation.
When Kaidou saw the wanted poster, he let out an inexplicable laugh. Since then, on Kaidou's territory, the price of everything else has never appeared as 5000 Belly.
At the same time, Olga and King also led their Hundred Beast men to another island, where they came to buy supplies on the black market.
The production of pure gold is extremely difficult, not only because the extinct materials are extremely rare, but even the existing materials are hard to find. After receiving the black market message, they naturally came over.
But at this time, they were not under their own banner but under the banner of Purilite.
Due to Spandine's misinformation, the World Government misjudged the situation in Purilite, thereby believing that Captain John's treasure was closely related to Purilite.
Meanwhile, because of discovering clues about pure gold on that island, they also placed the pure gold matter on Purilite's shoulders.
Kaidou and his group were the ones most knowledgeable about the situation in Purilite. The World Government's actions in the New World were far from secretive. Since they have never been able to find Purilite's whereabouts, they have started expanding their search network, inevitably leading to information leaks.
The effects and value of pure gold were too troublesome. Neither Arceus nor Kaidou wanted to be targeted by the World Government for now, so after some deliberation, they decided to give the government a new smokescreen.
With Olga's ability, the people of the Hundred Beasts were disguised as people of Purilite. Since the misunderstanding had already existed, they decided to let it escalate further.
Never trust the credibility of underworld merchants too much; they might fear power and refrain from doing outrageous things, like how the Natehuo Kingdom still maintains trade safety within its borders.
However, selling information twice is almost routine in the underworld, and expecting them to keep secrets is unrealistic.